Mary sporting purple glasses!

Since Mary is always trying to grab my glasses when they are perched atop my head, I thought she should try them on for style!

More photos about buildings and food !

Here are some pix of Mary in Lowes, picking out the new bathroom fixtures for HER bathroom, and also Mary demonstrating the art of eating spaghetti (#9) !

I am amazed at how well Mary is doing!

Mary is really progressing, with fine motor skills (she has watched Napoleon Dynamite, and his fav phrase is "you have to have skills." He sounds like is is quoting his guidance counselor).

Anyway, Mary has been feeding herself bite size foods for quite some time now. She can pick up individual cheerios, which is indicative of good fine motor SKILLS, and more than that, she appears to be understanding what we say. She will clap her hands upon request (without modeling), has responded to her name, brings specific objects over when asked, turns pages in books, and lots of other little things that I see, and I say , that is really something!

ok, enough bragging...

talking blond Paula Zahn (yes, that rhymes with moron)!

Over on www.chinaadopttalk.com, the big buzz has been about paula zahn, resident CNN talking blond, and the segment she did on the new CCAA regulations, with a segue to some midwest radio show host calling adoptive parents of children from China 'racist'. Well, the negative feedback from the international adoption community, specifically the bloggers (you know, the people who publish on the web while in their pajamas ) was so overwhelming that cnn and zahn hastily put together a follow up segment several days later.

Representing the china adoption community were the pres. of the New
York chapter of Families with
Children
from China and Ms. Gong, pres. of the organization of Chinese Americans.

Here is the link to info about the follow up show (aka the c.y.a. episode)
http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/01/page/2/

So many families emailed not only CNN, but the advertisers that sponsored the original show, that it had a huge impact ! I read about it after the fact, but would have emailed also, had I been aware of it in a timely manner!!!!!!!

to quote Don Henley (ok, he's a liberal, but his music is cool),
"...bubble headed bleach blond comes on at 5, she can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye"

Still more photos

At our 6 mos post "Mary is officially in the house" visit, we have to
provide 15 photos of Mary to the social worker who did our home study.
This will not be a problem!

Christmas 2006

digital images = 100,000 words!

Not So Chance Encounter with Santa

Wow, such a reaction ! That's my little drama queen in action.

Glimpses of Personality and Individualism!!!

Here are a few expressions I captured that need to be seen !! Judging by the 'Look' in her eyes in this one, no pushover is she...

An assortment of Mary in motion, and Bear doing time in the Kenmoore !!

More photos

FIrst the walking, then the talking...

Sunday, November 26, 2006 (coincidentally the day of her baptism), Mary started really walking, going the whole distance of the room at a steady pace without stumbling!!

And she has maintained her 'sea legs' ever since. Oh boy. With that, though she will still stay in the stroller during shopping excursions, she has tasted freedom, so being content in the stroller may be short lived.

Well, it was a nice run while it lasted.

She is also imitating words and phrases sometimes. Example, Bruce said here's your panda bear and she repeated pana beah , or 3 syllables that sounded like it with same intonation.

Also, good morning sleepy girl produced " seepy guh, or some facsimile... I had noticed this a couple of times before, when it sounded like she said an exact word.

And "beauh" is her word for her pink bear.

Lots of babbling of phrases, and yesterday, she said Hi to a sales rep in the Ulta cosmetics store, in response to the girl saying Hi to her. Mary said it twice, and the whole incident is a first.

Looking for a pink, plush Carter's bear "My FIrst Bear"

We went a shopping today, looking for a back up bear for the 'My First Bear" that appears to have attained most favored status with Mary.

No luck in Carter's store or on ebay. Oh , well.

Everyday's a holiday with Mary !

Miss M. attends her first social event of the season!

Frustration, courtesy of our friends at the Social Security office & a photo of Monique & Mary

I went to soc sec. office today, to try to get a card for Mary. They said I needed more documentation, spec a US birth cert, and she kept saying I didnt have the final adoption decree, which I did.

I called my agency and Ad. coordinator told me which item it was, and that soc sec often gives people a hard time. so bottom line, have to register the adoption with the orphan's court in our county court house, and then they will issue a us birth cert with mary's english name and our names on it. current one has our names and her chinese name.and then i take that, once received , along with several other docs , back to the s.s. office! your tax dollars at work.

The S.S. girl just kept repeating the same statements, and when I asked her exactly what docs i did need, she said it's on the direction sheet that you can find online. I finally asked for the manager, and then the girl was a little more helpful, and elaborated about exactly what was needed.I was close to saying something sarcastic to her, but restrained myself, even when she said my attorney (the adopt agency owner ) obviously doesn't know what he is talking about.Very frustrating,

Mary was quite clingy and a bit out of sorts to day, prob because no reg. nap in late a.m. due to being at the soc sec office.and though she fell asleep for 15 mins in the car, once home, she would not fall asleep. She also didn't eat as much lunch, though she compensated for that at dinner. In between all that , she was cheerful, and walking and clapping and giggling, so who knows.

more photos from Sunday. Doesn't Aunt MoMo look great with Mary. I can't wait until she travels to and returns from Vietnam with her baby daughter, so we can take a similar photo of me holding the new little one!

November 26, 2006 Mary's Baptism

Thanksgiving 2006 photos